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District 18 9-10 tournament openers packed with action

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JAMIE PESOTINE/Staff Photographer
Hazle Township's Nick Payne beats the throw to first base for a single during his team's District 18 9-10 Little League Tournament game in West Hazleton on Saturday. Kevin Meluskey is Valley West's first baseman.

The opening day of the District 18 North 9-10 Year-Old All-Star tournament was a veritable checklist of things necessary for exciting baseball.

Towering home runs? Check.

Speedy, aggressive baserunners? Yep.

Key fielding plays? You got it.

Dominating pitching performances? Uh huh.

Clutch at-bats? One memorable one.

Four games were played Saturday at West Hazleton, and grew more competitive as the day progressed.

Hazleton romped to a 14-0 win over White Haven to begin the day, while Valley East triumphed 12-1 over Tri-County in the second game. Valley West outlasted Hazle Township 13-9 in the third contest, while West Hazleton eked by Freeland 4-3 with some late-game heroics.

â Hazleton 14, White Haven 0 (4 innings) - Hazleton came out swinging early in the day, belting 13 hits, seven of which were for extra bases. Couple that with a shortened perfect game by three of their pitchers, and Hazleton made quite an impression to begin the tournament.

Dewin Concepcion belted a solo home run in the first, legged out a two-run triple in the second, and topped that with a race around the bases in the third with an inside-the-park home run to lead Hazleton, going 3-for-3 with 4 runs batted in.

â Valley East 12, Tri-County 1 (4 innings) - Valley East's bats picked up where Hazleton's left off, as the winners laced 11 hits to advance to the winner's bracket as well.

Valley East plated three in the top of the first through an error, a bunt single by Cole Aerts, and some aggressive baseruning by Aerts and Christopher Wolk. Tri-County stranded four runners in the first two innings - all of whom walked - as Valley East caught several baserunners trying to advance around the basepaths. Christopher Wolk came around and finished strong on the mound, registering seven strikeouts while allowing just two hits.

Valley East blew open a 7-1 game in the top of the fourth, highlighted by a bases loaded hit-by-pitch by Alex Schell and a two-run single by Christopher Wolk.

Christopher Wolk finished with a double, single, and five RBI to lead Valley East. Stas Hughes singled twice, Schell doubled, and Aerts scored three runs to add to the attack, while Alec Ferris, Kellen Warner, Landon Wolk, Bryce Molinaro and Nico Stancato all added singles for the winners.

Nick Damiano tripled and scored the only run to lead Tri-County, while Nick Waak had a base hit and a RBI.

VEâ¦.................340 5 - 12 11 0

TC....................â¦..001 0 - 1 2 4

C. Wolk and Carl; Jadush, Alucci (4), Nice (4) and Zullo.

W - C. Wolk. L - Jadush.

â Valley West 13, Hazle Township 9 - In the first game of the day to go a full six innings, two ultracompetitive teams traded big innings, but it was Valley West's bottom of the first that dug a hole for Hazle Township that it never climbed out of.

Hazle Township struck first in the top of the first with a leadoff home run by Matt Shamany and a RBI single from Nate Hile that played Nick Payne. However, Valley West may have set a record for efficient production in the bottom of the frame.

In the first 11 pitches of the inning, Valley West struck for five runs. Nick Russo led off the inning with a double to the wall, Jon Skuba plated him with a single, Mike Kilker blasted a two-run home run, KevinMeluskey singled and starting pitcher Marcus Labuda belted a two-run shot of his own. Two more runs would score later in the inning, with 11 Valley West batters making it to the plate in the inning as it forged a 7-2 lead early.

Hazle Township settled in and kept further damage to a minimum while clawing back bit by bit. Frank Steco bunted his way aboard to start the second and Hazle Township countered with a three-run frame, capped by a run-scoring single by Ryan Verbonitz.

After Valley West added three more runs in the second and third to make it 10-5, Hazle Township cut the deficit to one in the top of the fifth. Nick Ruby, Jason Hile, and Shamany all singled and Verbonitz walked to put one run on the board before Payne ripped a bases-clearing double to make it 10-9.

Meluskey, working in relief for Valley West, settled down to strike out the final batter of the fifth and end the rally.

Valley West got a cushion for their hurlers in the bottom of the fifth, countering Hazle Township's offensive explosion with another of their own. Russo led the frame off with his second two-bagger of the game and scored on a Skuba single. Skuba scored on a throwing error following a Kilker single, and Kilker raced around the bags to later score on a wild pitch, setting the final score in stone at 13-9.

Hazle Township had one final shot in the sixth, but Skuba came on to close out the game by striking out his first two batters, walking one, and getting a fielder's choice to end it.

Kilker had a banner day, going 3-for-4 with a home run, double, and four RBI to lead Valley West at theplate. Russo also had a three-hit game, doubling twice and scoring three runs. Meluskey and Labuda homered and singled, and Brandon Schlauch rounded out the offense with a two-run single.

Shamany homered and double, drove in two and scored three to anchor the Hazle Township hitting attack. Verbonitz went 2-for-3 and drove in a run, while Payne had a three-run double. Nate Hile singled home a run and Ruby, Steco, Nick Biasi, and Austin Merola chipped in with base knocks.

â West Hazleton 4, Freeland 3 - After three games full of huge hits, balls clearing the fence left and right, and runners racing around the basepaths to score almost at will, it was fitting that host West Hazleton won a well-played, defensive-minded squeaker - that ended on a big hit of its own.

Nine-hitter Armando Candelerio, who in three at-bats saw 20 pitches and fouled off five, punched a single past third base to score T.J. Bond in the bottom of the sixth with a walkoff single.

Freeland led 3-2 heading into the final at-bat of the day, but a fielding error put Seth Green aboard with one out. Bond grounded into a fielder's choice at second, but Green beat the throw to the bag, and Isaiah Crespo drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases with one out. David Castro followed with a runscoring walk to set up Candelerio's heroics.

All three of Freeland's runs scored on heads-up baserunning plays. Carson Valcusky reached on an error

to lead off the top of the econd, and eventually scored on a passed ball. After Bryce Overton got aboard on a fielder's choice, he stole a base and advanced to third on a wild pitch before alertly stealing home on the West Hazleton battery between pitches to give his team the lead at 2-1. Two innings later in the fourth, Overton beat a play at the plate once again on a wild pitch to put Freeland ahead again.

West Hazleton's offense was led by Zeke Milot, Giovanni Forte and Castro, who each doubled. Candelerio, Green, and Bond all singled, and Leonardo Espinal added a sacrifice fly and RBI. Crespo got the win in relief.

Freeland had two hits off the bats of Overton and Billy Rice. Overton scored two runs as well and Colin

Van Blargen struck out four in 1 2/3 innings as the starter for Freeland.

North Division action wil resume today at West Hazleton with White Haven taking on Tri-County at 11 a.m.; Hazle Township meeting Freeland at 1 p.m. and Hazleton facing Valley East at 3 and Valley West going against West Hazleton at 5

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